/**
 * Copyright (c) 2007-2008 Nearchos Paspallis
 *
 * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
 * of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
 * in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
 * to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
 * copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
 * furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
 *
 * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
 * all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
 *
 * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
 * IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
 *
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
 * AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
 * LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
 * OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
 * THE SOFTWARE.
 */
/**
 * AspectSense
 *
 * Middleware for annotation-based, context-aware and adaptive services for
 * mobile and ubiquitous computing
 *
 * This project is an open-source effort, initiated by Nearchos Paspallis as
 * part of his PhD work at the University of Cyprus (http://www.ucy.ac.cy).
 *
 * More information about the project is available at "http://aspectsense.org".
 */

package org.aspectsense.context;

/**
 * Abstracts a context type.
 *
 * @author Nearchos Paspallis [nearchos@cs.ucy.ac.cy]
 *         Date: Jan 2, 2008
 *         Time: 2:58:36 PM
 */
public interface ContextType
{
    /**
     * Returns a string representation of this {@link ContextType}.
     *
     * @return a string representation of this {@link ContextType}.
     */
    public String getType();

    /**
     * Checks if this context type is a child of the specified one, as per the
     * {@link org.aspectsense.context.ContextModel}.
     *
     * @param contextType the possible ancestor context type
     * @return true if and only if this context type is a child of the
     * specified one, as per the {@link org.aspectsense.context.ContextModel}.
     */
    public boolean isChildOf(final ContextType contextType);
}